Page 27 of No Reason to Trust

She nodded, and they started up the next staircase. It was darker up here, with the light fading outside. A few ceiling lights glowed, enough to illuminate the stairs and the office doors. There was an eerie feeling to the deserted building. It made her want to get into the office, get the cameras installed, and get out. But of course she didn’t say anything to Jake. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, but darkness could hide too many things.

She had no sense of being watched, and from the way Jake headed up the stairs, he didn’t think so, either. When they reached the third floor, he found 320 quickly. Before he inserted the pick into the lock, he pressed his ear to the door. Listened for a long time. Finally he inserted it into the lock and eased the door open.

The room was pitch black. Jake eased the door closed and pulled out his phone. Turned on the flashlight and used it to scan the room.

Livvy was surprised at how similar this room was to the room where she’d had her meeting. Couches lined the walls, and there was a single desk in the corner. There was a window in the room, but it was covered with a dark shade.

Livvy crouched in front of the door and used her own phone flashlight to study the sill. It looked as though the threshold was a tight fit to the sill, and would prevent any light from leaking under the door. She turned to look at Jake. “Does that shade seem lightproof?”

“I think so,” he said. “I can’t find any gaps in it.”

“The sill and threshold look tight, too. I think it’s safe to turn on the light.”

“That’d make this installation go more quickly,” he said.

“And that’s exactly what we want: to get those cameras installed, check out escape routes and get out of here.”

“Yeah.” He fiddled with the backpack strap. “I don’t know about you, but the silence is creepy.”

“I agree. Let’s get to work.”

She flipped on the lights, and they both had to shut their eyes for a moment. But as soon as they were acclimated, Jake pulled the desk chair into the middle of the room. “Where should we put the cameras?” he asked her.

“How about one above the door, the other above the window?” Livvy said, her eyes studying the room. “That way, we get a picture of the whole room. And if someone’s sitting at the desk, the camera near the window should easily pick up his voice. Especially since he wouldn’t think he was being recorded.”

Jake scanned the room, then nodded. “I agree.” He dug into the backpack and found the knife to cut through the ceiling tiles. It took less than ten minutes to install the first camera. Then he carried the chair toward the door and repeated the steps. In less than a half-hour, the cameras were installed, the debris cleaned up, and the room looked exactly like it had when they walked in.

“We good here?” Livvy asked as Jake looked around the room. The back of her neck itched, and she wanted to get out of this building.

“Yeah. Let’s go,” Jake said, closing the backpack and slinging it over his shoulders again.

They turned off the light, giving their eyes a chance to get used to the darkness. After a few minutes, Livvy pressed her ear against the door. She froze, then turned to Jake. “There’s someone in the building.”

Jake came over and listened. “They’re on the first floor,” he said. “Their voices are echoing off all that glass. Let’s get out of here.”

They stepped into the hall and closed the door as quietly as possible. Then they looked around. No way could they go down the stairs if someone was on the first floor.

Just around the corner from the office was another door. Livvy opened it and peered in. Along the back wall was a line of meters. Judging by the numbers, one for every office on this floor. The side walls held shelves with office supplies, articles of clothing and, on the top shelf, weapons. Handguns, long guns, knives.

“In here,” she whispered. “They’re coming up the stairs.”

Jake slid into the closet and pulled the door closed slowly and silently. It was pitch dark in the closet, but Livvy pulled out her gun. She heard Jake’s clothes rustling, and figured he’d pulled his Glock out, as well. Then she whispered, “I think we could slide under the bottom shelves. They might still see us, but at least we’d have time to react.”

Jake crouched in front of one of the shelves. Livvy heard his clothes rasp against the floor as he squirmed into the space. “I’m in,” he whispered. “Get under the other shelf.”

Livvy dropped to her knees and felt around for the shelf. She wedged herself beneath the bottom shelf, then gripped her gun tightly. Just in case.

Voices came closer. Footsteps on the stairs echoed in the empty building. The intruders made no effort to be quiet -- Jake assumed they were confident the building was empty.

Instead of continuing up the stairs, the men’s footsteps echoed on the wooden floor, made the slats beneath them vibrate slightly. Jake held his breath, hoping they weren’t going into the office he and Livvy had just vacated. But they kept going down the hall, and it sounded as if they stopped about halfway down. A door opened. Closed a few seconds later.

He heard the muted sound of voices talking but couldn’t make out any words. Couldn’t even tell if they were speaking English.

He and Livvy were trapped in this tiny closet until those men left. Unless there was another way out of the building. He remembered he’d seen a large window beside this door, and he wondered where it went. He squirmed out of the space beneath the shelf and slid over to Livvy.

“Gonna go take a look at that window. See where it goes. See if there’s a way out there.”

She grabbed his wrist and held tight. “Maybe it’d be smarter just to wait here until they’re gone.”

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